Hi and welcome to this week's 50 & Beyond Health & Wellbeing blog. Each week I will provide you with knowledge, tips, advice and recommendations to inspire you to sustain good metabolic health specific to being over 50. Chris Deavin, myHealthCoach
In my first post on the three things stopping you from the body you want, I discussed the importance of establishing your 'why'.
Your 'why' is the vision of what you want to become. Your vision of your future self is the reason you want to change. You believe and see a better vision for yourself. An improvement of who you are today.
You can only truly change when you have a strong enough reason to.
So you have a strong 'why'. How are you now going to go about achieving it? What will it take to achieve the change you want?
To achieve your 'why,' you need to come up with what it will take to achieve it. What are the strategies, habits and behaviours that you need to do consistently?
You need a strategy to achieve what you want to avoid leaving your results to chance. Not the best recipe for success.
There are three primary ways to make sure you achieve the change you want through proper strategy;
Start now.
Don't overcomplicate things.
Revise every step.
By following these three strategies, you will increase your ability to consistently implement the habits and behaviours needed to achieve the desired change.
Let's review each strategy and see how they can help you achieve the body, fitness and strength needed to live a healthier life.
Start Now
We tend to wait for the perfect time to start following the right diet, exercise plan or lifestyle change.
"I will start after the weekend". "I have a special occasion coming up. So it's best to wait until after that". If we want to delay change, we will always find a reason to.
Delaying something is more about the fear of not doing it right. Or a fear of failing. If we keep putting it off, just maybe the discomfort of being unhealthy and out of shape will go away.
The best time to start your journey to a healthier, better-looking, strong, and fit body was yesterday. The next best time is today.
Take the first step today. No matter how small a step. You can only move on to the second step once you have completed the first one.
Don't worry if you mess it up and not get it right from the start. Not trying is failing. If you are going to fail, you might as well fail trying.
Don't Overcomplicate Things
One of the main reasons people delay and not start on the journey to change is they overthink things. They think things need to be perfect to see any change.
Inaction through overthinking is a common reason people fail to change. Paralysis through analysis. "I 'm not sure if I should do interval training or HITT training". "I need to find out how many grams of protein I need to eat with every meal before I come up with ideas for lunches".
At first, keep things simple. What are the low-hanging fruit we can pick today? What will give us easy wins that we know we will find easy to repeat?
It is the small daily actions that will make the most significant difference. When we have mastered the fundamentals, we can start looking at more complex strategies to produce even better results.
Revise Every Step
Have you ever found yourself driving down the wrong road and travelling away from your preferred destination?
Before leaving home, you checked the route you needed to take before setting off. But you then didn't bother rechecking if you were still on course as you made your way (imagine a world without Satnav). And before you know it, you are going in the wrong direction.
This can happen very easily with any health plan. You know what it is you want to achieve. You either put together a plan yourself, or you are following a recommended plan from someone else.
You then get your head down and start implementing that plan with gusto and vigour.
After a while, though, you start noticing you aren't achieving the results you thought you would from all the time and hard work you have given it.
How disappointing and de-motivating it can be to suddenly realise that you aren't going to achieve what you wanted, and you will have to start all over again.
Revising and adjusting what you are doing as you work through your plan will help you spot mistakes and tell you when it's right to change things that are not working before you have gone too far.
It's ok to make mistakes and not get things right. It is a process of trial and error. It is better to own up and be honest to yourself that you got it wrong and need to change things than it is to stubbornly plough on, knowing that what you are doing isn't working.
Conclusion
After establishing a strong reason to want to change, you need to work out what it will take to succeed.
What strategies will you need to implement to increase your consistency in performing the habits and behaviours required to get the healthier, fitter and stronger body you are looking for?
Make sure you get started as soon as you can. Don't overthink and overcomplicate what you are going to do, and don't be afraid to change what you are doing if you start to see that you are going in the wrong direction.
In the next and final part of the three things you need to stop doing to achieve the body you want, we will go through the 'how'. How will you actually achieve the results you want?
Are you struggling to stay consistent and reach your health goals? Here are a couple of ways I can help;
Free Health Plan Review
Get feedback and recommendations on your current health plan and what you can do to improve it and get even better results;
Free Health & Wellbeing Assessment
Not sure what sort of health plan you need to follow? Take my free health & wellbeing assessment, and I will send you a comprehensive, personalised health plan that you can start using from today;
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To learn more about improving your health and what I provide as a health coach, feel free to email me any questions via myhealthcoachuk@gmail.com. Happy to help in any way I can.
Chris, myHealthCoach